Shaving

A few nights ago as I was getting Braiden dressed after his bath, he was telling me what he was doing in the shower.  He was saying that he was shaving.  I said, "Braiden was shaving?"  and he replied, "Yeah" -thanks to daddy, his Yes is sometimes answered with Yeah -head shakes.
So I had to see it for myself.  It's so funny how he LOVES to be pampered.  He knows how to maneuver his face to shave all the areas correctly!

*** Safety cover is on the razor ***

Playing Catch

Braiden's coordination skills have improved so much...
he has gone from playing catch by sitting down and rolling the ball to now standing and catching the ball.  He enjoys both ends of this game - catching and throwing.

Take 1

 

Take 2

*LOVE how he narrates:
"Oh! Close"
&
"Yah!"

He's Counting!

So proud of Braiden as he is starting to count on his own.  He doesn't recognize the written numbers yet but he can resite up to 12.  Needing a little help here and there but he's doing pretty well for a little feller!  He has also been grouping things together (ex: same shapes, sizes, colors, etc.).

*This video is out of focus because I -of course grabbed the camera in a hurry after a few minutes into this and wanted to record it before Braiden lost focus.

Resourceful boys

My boys are true prodigies of their daddy.

Story #1 : 

Last week Saturday,  Michael was showing our property to potential tenants.  Prior to these clients arriving,  Matthew told Michael that he needed to use the bathroom -keep in mind that there are NO utilities hooked up as the house is vacant.  Michael asked him to wait a bit and they would go to Starbucks down the street as soon as his morning appointment were over.  Well... as Michael approached the upstairs bathroom WITH the clients, out comes Matthew from the bathroom with a plastic bag in hand.  Need I say more?!?!  Let's just say that Matthew put a yellow plastic lollicup bag and kleenex that he found in the car to good use.  Michael has deemed Matthew as the reining "Thumper Dumper"!!!

Story #2 :

Last night when Hailey was trying to get Braiden out of the tub, he decided to squat and bare down with all his might.  He immediately layed out a log in the bathtub as I was desperately trying to get him on the toilet.  This is the first time that this has ever happened!  After he was done he said, "all pau" then he asked to see IT.  He then said, "ewww gross"! 

Go figure... This just goes to show that when my boys have to go, they have to GO!  AND they are VERY resourceful in all that they do!

*SORRY no pictures BUT i'm sure everyone has a good mental picture painted in their minds =)

Humming Small World

He can carry a tune!!!

Listen to Braiden humming ~Small World!!!

He was in between humming the song and saying,
"Ride it, on boat"!!!

Braiden's First Time Visiting The L.A. Zoo

It's very rare that Mommy gets a day off but when she does... it means having some mommy 'n me time!  A perfect cool, beautiful summer day to spend at the L.A. Zoo. 
We've been studying the alphabet with Braiden and have been incorporating animals into it.  It serves as good preparation to coming to the zoo.

A Meerkat on the look out!

New to the zoo... Black Swans

I think these are the same Flamingos that I saw when I was small!

Gorillas eating some fruit tree leaves

A funny story...

For some reason when most of the animals were eating their meals, their backs were turned to us.  I was eagarly waiting for some sort of reaction from Braiden about these unreal huge animals that he only sees in books.  As we were watching these Gorillas eating there was one other little girl there with her mommy and grandma.  Out of the blue, breaking the silence was Mr.B saying in a LOUD voice, "Eww, Monkey butt, stinky"!  I couldn't help but laugh and the other mommy and grandma said, "Yes! You're right!"  Just shows how observant Braiden is!

Braiden got up close and personal with this one Gorilla.

They were using sign language to communicate with eachother.

Z is for Zebra

The Lions were sleeping

Braiden's nap schedule is in sink with these Lions.

Right about now is his morning nap time too!

That's what keeps them -BRAVE & FEARLESS-

Giraffes

I'm as tall as this giraffe!

The whole family

Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains

Looking for Elephants

Shucks -I caught the end of our conversation as we were walking hand in hand... but Braiden was saying, "Elephants, where are you?" I tried to get him to repeat it but he got distracted by Hailey :/

This Elephant had an ouchie on the side of it's eye.

Orangutans and Red Apes

Just hanging around

This Orangutan was showing us his dance moves by spinning around in a circle and then laying down like this and looking at us!

The Tigers were also sleeping

A Hippopotamus!

Braiden says the Hippo was taking a bath cause it was dirty.

American Black Bear eating some fish

This was a rare species exhibit. 

The zoo had him on display just for today!

~ Braiden Makoa ~

Watching the World of Birds Show

Finally something that resembles Braiden's all time favorite -turtles...

Madagascar Tortoises

Trying to get a picture of Hailey and Braiden but he couldn't keep his eyes off of the "turtles"!

My silly guy <3

I found a tortoise!

Kangaroos

"Shhh, Koala Bear sleeping", Braiden says

It woke up to scratch an itch it had!

After a few hours at the zoo, Braiden was pooped out.  He had a good five minute power nap then up and running!  He couldn't wait to tell everyone that he saw lots of animals at the zoo today!



Just my size

It's movie night!!!
and it wouldn't be a movie night without
the right sized bucket of popcorn!!!

Although Braiden had his own bucket of popcorn, he was smart enough to realize that big brother would share some of his therefore evening out the amount of actual popcorn eaten!!!

Smart Baby =)

Ha Ha Sucker!!!

Thank you for celebrating with us!

~Mahalo nui loa na ho'olaule'a me la kaua

The Trang Ohana has lots to celebrate!!!
All within a few weeks span we celebrated the kids birthdays and Matthew's 8th Grade promotion to high school as well as
Hailey's 5th grade promotion to middle school!
Hooray!!!

My Ray of Sunshine

One glimpse of this silly, sweet face...

always brightens my day!!!

Speaking of expanding repertoire!

Thanks to Auntie Amanda... Braiden has added a few LINES to his vocabulary.  He really knows how and when to use them but I know that they are spontanous and probably won't have the camera ready so I asked him to repeat after me...

"HA HA sucker"

-&-

"Aww nuts"

He has already proven to use these lines well =)

Where are you...???

I've somewhat become familiar with my new camera and can now record and post videos.   Now the key is to remember to have the camera on the right settings and to have it handy to capture these moments.

It's amazing how Braiden's vocabulary has taken off!  Every day his words become more clear and his repertoire of words is expanding.  I'm hoping to capture this progress for keep sake.


During bath time tonight, Braiden was saying, "Auntie, Where are you"?  He'd go down his list of people who were here and have this scrunched up look on his face.  We'd ask if they went home and he would say, "NO,  Auntie airplane, up" or "Grandpa car".  Of course I didn't have my camera so as I was getting him dressed I tried to get him to retell his story and had a little bit of luck!

Missing Everyone

  Today was the first full day of having an empty house.  Adjusting to everyone leaving is never an easy task however taking a nap was definetely on Braiden's agenda.  
We tucked him in his bed as usual with his blue blankie and read him a book.  We later checked in on him and this is what we found... Braiden sleeping on "Auntie Bed" =(

"Braiden nite-nite, Auntie bed" says Mr. B as I am uploading this!

So SWEET <3